You heard it here first (well, maybe not first): Jackson Browne is slowing down.
Yes, when your greatest hits collections and back-catalog re-releases start
outnumbering the original material, then your career is officially in retirement
mode. Give Browne credit for recently founding an independent record label
(Inside Recordings) and then merging with a leading nationwide distributor (ADA,
Inc.) to get his stuff, as well as a bunch of cool indie recordings that might
not have otherwise found a way, out to the masses.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s new Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1 stands as
his first live record since the 1977 mega-platinum Running on Empty. That, in
and of itself, should cause this inaugural Inside Recordings release to tweak
some interest. Brandishing nothing here but an acoustic guitar or piano, Browne
plods through his vast library and reworks a few well-known hits (“These Days”
and “The Pretender”), various deep album tracks (“Fountain of Sorrow” and
“Looking East”), and a long, lost treasure called “The Birds of St. Marks”,
which has never been released in any form.

A second disc could well have been attached just to accommodate Browne’s lengthy
chatter between songs. In fact, the CD lists 20 tracks (including exact time
segments for intros) even though there are but 12 actual songs. Some of the
introductions are clever and funny, like when he admits to goofing up The
Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling” on a prior night or when he salutes Andy Warhol
in his preface to the well-received “These Days.” He gets his biggest laughs,
however, when a fan yells out a request and Browne responds, “See, that’s the
way it is now, they don’t ask if you’ll do it, they ask if you remember it! The
truth is I don’t know if I remember it, but we’ll find out.”

This is an impressively hushed outing for a guy who once played in the Nitty
Gritty Dirt Band (that’s right, check your rock n’ roll history books). These
songs come across like fabled stories, played out by an author who always seemed
to miss (or possibly avoid) the mainstream and favored posturing socialism to
selling records. “Lives in the Balance” serves as his not-so-subtle political
rant this time out, and while it is 20 years old, the themes are strikingly
pertinent. Excess chatter and political fodder aside, Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1 is
the best wine-sipping dinner disc of the year. It peels a handful of Jackson
Browne’s favorite compositions down to their naked core and exposes his soul for
all to hear, as if he were 21 years young again and starving for a gig on the
L.A. folk circuit.